99 replies to this topic

[Pablo]

Out of the jig for solder touch ups, cleaning, and a check for flat and true on my best block before proceeding

 

 

[Pablo]

I used my flattest block to tack on the .025 brass sheet rail pieces. Then, time for a sandwich

[Bill from NH]

You need to use a granite surface plate to check for real flatness. Maybe cheater will give you a deal on his.

[dc-65x]

It's looking beautiful Pablo!

 

Here's a granite surface plate such as Bill is referring to. It's nice and small at 6"X8"X2":

 

 

Granite Surface Plate On eBay

 

This is a great plate to use to check for flatness after you've soldered the chassis on your jig.

[Bill from NH]

Sizewise, it would work great, pricewise, I'd need more information on these particular plates as to their grade.

[dc-65x]

It's nothing super duper tool room grade Bill but it should be good for slot car use and affordable:

 

"This tool room grade "B" Granite Plate has a bilateral accuracy of plus or minus .0001" total instrument runout for precision measurements from a common surface base."

[Bill from NH]

The eBay price is $46.38. If you get one direct from Grizzly Tools, where the eBay seller said his came from, the price is $21.50. I bought 2"X9"X12" grade "B" plate years ago from Lee Valley Tools. Today, it sells for $39.50.

[dc-65x]

That's great Bill. Thanks for finding a cheaper source.

[Pablo]

Here's mine.

 

But, the Q/A Inspector says the white "Precision Slot Cars" block is just as flat, if not flatter, than my $5 granite monster.

[Bill from NH]

Maybe that white block has been laser ground flat by Precision. You could tell definitely one way or the other with the use of a quality straightedge. One of my friends here use to grind the bottoms of his chassis with a Sears 6x48 stationary belt sander. His cars were always competitive race cars.

[Pablo]

Marklin Train wires and 7T Sonic solder-on steel pinion ready

[havlicek]

It all looks pretty danged great to me!  Build-on there Pablo!  

 

-john

[Pablo]

Inside decals

 

The rear gumball numbers sit in awkward positions. If I had Micro-Set I could fix those creases, but it's only a $6 body.

I'll just keep giving them light brush coats of Faux Glaze until I'm confident the paint won't seep under them.

[Pablo]

I'm surprised nobody caught my error in the first photo of post 23.

I can imagine the email "Hey, the motor on this thing just quit running"

Anyway, first (rough) cut on the rear wheels. I like to let them settle and cure for an extra day before the final trim/true

[Pablo]

Wheels, inserts, and axles ready to go

[dc-65x]

Looks great Pablo. I like the way the front tires turned out. Are they all the way down to 3/4"? They look very vintage Pro car.

[Pablo]

Thanks ! Yup, EJ's #15's, .760 OD, and the oranges are .885 OD, about 9/16 wide tread.

[Eddie Fleming]

These days those orange tires look so bad, but that's the way it was back then.

 

Looks great I want to see it track ready.

[SlotStox#53]

Mmmm, fresh orange sponge and EJ's #15 perfect combination wheel trims look really good against the orange & shiny rim

[Pablo]

.065 hypodermic stainless steel in 3/32 tubes for drop arm hinge

[Pablo]

Before I got too deep into the drop arm assembly, I checked the flag tube.

A Tongue Tweeker doesn't work too well on this type setup, so I used a nut and bolt.

Made a slight correction for right/left and fore/aft. Now I can move on with confidence

[Pablo]

Drop arm is done. I wanted to get the down stop done to make sure nothing moves.

I'm going set it aside while I do the body management, just like dc-65x did.

 

Howie obviously thought this arm out well. No wonder he may have taken it off another chassis - it's a keeper.

By making the inner rails same width as the tube, once all the other rails are placed, it tuns out to have about .063 spacing between the arm and inner main rails.

Also, the flag stop rods are much easier to make than Cukras-style stops.

 

 

[dc-65x]

Very nice Pablo.

 

Looks like you'll have just a little bit of drop arm travel. From Howie's test of my car, that should be a good thing.

[Pablo]

Thanks Capt. Rick, I hope so

Your RGeo jig setup was so SANO, maybe somebody will get a kick out of how we do it down here in the slums

I put a pair of 063 pins on the widest of the small holes. Outside of the pins is 3.00, inside is 2.875.

I soldered my body management rods butted up to the insides of the pins, giving me .063 overhang for the pin tubes/hinge rods

 

Then taped .063 wire on the outsides of the upper rods. This outside edge is exactly 3.00 width

 

The wire serves as the trimming point for the pin tubes/hinge rods.

Not only does it show me exactly where to cut, when sparks fly off the cutting wheel you know you're there

 

Perfect 2.995 pin tube widths

 

 

[bluecars]

Alright then.